Tourist in Dallas Again

I have a challenge for you, go to your nearest big city, park your car, and walk around. It's amazing what you can stumble across when you aren't hampered by a plan. This course of action is very much not me. However, today Hubby drove towards Dallas as I looked for something fun to do on my phone. I didn't find anything interesting, and he parked... we got out... I asked him where we were going... he said he didn't know! And we had a great time!

One of the first things that happened is a man handed me flowers & told me all I needed to do for them was kiss my Hubby. So I did, then the man said my Hubby could pay for the flowers, genius sales move ;) Since we were celebrating our 6 year anniversary (& he happened to hand me 6 roses) Hubby bought them for me & the man sang us an anniversary song :)

They look lovely in my kitchen :)

This is Fountain Place, the fountains around the building were already turned off for the day, but the building itself is lovely. It is even on the official Art Walk that Hubby & I started last week, & have now checked one more place off our list :)

This is pat of Fountain Place, which is lovely even with the fountains turned off. We want to go back again when they are on to really enjoy it!

We then happened upon this memorial fountain tucked away on the corner of Ross & Akard. It was very secluded & would make a great place for a picnic or some light reading.

As we were walking down the sidewalk I saw the head of this statue sticking up over some foliage. It happened to be the courtyard of The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art.

The museum was closed for the day, but the courtyard had plenty to see.

This is another place we will be revisiting (We may never need to take another vacation with all the stuff we are adding to our to do list in Dallas)

We found another place great for a picnic on Flora St, they had a line of these tables all painted differently. The smiling flowers was my favorite :)

Art is everywhere!

After we took our picture a wedding party started setting up to take pictures with this mural. It's a great date to get married :)

I recommend the tea & stromboli! Very yummy!

This building really does not look like it belongs in Downtown Dallas! I love the historic signs & buildings that fill Dallas!

We had a long, but fun walk today! Great way to spend our 6 year anniversary! Please share with us your findings when you go on your city tour! Look for the art in everything, the architecture, the sculptures, even the park benches :)

Our Engagement Story

With our 6 year anniversary quickly approaching (it's tomorrow!) I thought I would share how Hubby proposed :)
He was taking me out for a fun night to celebrate our 5 year dating anniversary (Aww). We drove into Downtown Dallas, and parked near Reunion Tower. I had never been up in Reunion Tower & we had talked many times about going to check it out. So hand in hand we walked around the hotel to find the elevator to go up to the observation deck. We walked around the observation deck looking at Dallas, and then he stopped me. He pulled out a wooden box & asked me to be his wife (sadly neither of us remember exactly how he proposed, I should have been keeping a blog then!) He opened the box & inside was a beautiful Claddagh ring!

The one thing we do remember is the lady who walked around the corner & said, "You had better tell him yes!" Well as you know, I did :)
We then went back to the car & I spent the next hour or so on the phone. This was long awaited news that needed to be shared! At one point after he had just been watching me on the phone, he realized he should probably at least call his parents, silly boy.
We had our first dinner as an engaged couple that night at Sal's Pizza. And we have been living happily ever after ever since!

Tourist in Dallas

To celebrate our 6 year anniversary, which is 1 week from today :), we decided to become tourists in our own city. I Googled things to do in Dallas & found an Art Walk that sounded like a lot of fun. We will have to choose another day to complete the Art Walk because we got caught up looking & did not make it very far ;), but we had a great time!

We started out at the Dallas Museum of Art Sculpture Garden.

BTW, I married a sexy man! ;)

We then walked over to see the First United Methodist Church, which was built in 1926. Several of the locations on the Art Walk are chosen for the historical architecture.

I kept pulling, but I couldn't get it to budge!

We decided to go in & explore the Dallas Museum of Art, which took most of the rest of our day, but was well worth it :)

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The first exhibit we looked at was Hotel Texas, which displayed the art they put together specifically for JFK's hotel room when he stayed in Fort Worth the night before his assassination, 50 years ago. The pictured piece, Picasso's "Angry Owl", was my favorite piece out of the museum. His little eyes & beak intrigued me.

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Francois-Auguste Biard

"Seasickness at the Bal on Board an English Corvette"

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Cornelis Saftleven

"College of Animals"

Hubby really liked both of these pieces.

He's a rebel

Outside of the museum we came across a line of Food Trucks. Being a fan of The Food Network & The Great Food Truck Race, we had to check this out!

We decided on an ice cream sandwich truck :) It was sooo yummy! If you are ever in the area I highly recommend the double chocolate cookie with sea salt & balsamic fig mascarpone ice cream!

Hunt Oil Tower

This was not on the official Art Walk, but I think the Architecture is awesome.

That ended our tour of Dallas for the day, although I am looking forward to finishing our Art Walk!

 However, on our way home (after we went to see a movie) we stopped for a snow cone. What is more "Texas" than seeing two horses tied up at a snow cone shop :) I thought this was the perfect ending to our Dallas Tour!

Can I have a bite, please?!

Have you ever been a tourist in your own city? Sometimes it's great to see the same old city from a new perspective!

The Kitchen

It has been awhile since I shared our home renovating projects with you! That's not because there haven't been any!
Since this weeks theme for the photo challenge is In The Kitchen, I thought I would share what we have  done in the kitchen.

We started out with very old brown cabinets.  One thing about digital that I haven't quite figured out yet is how to organize my pics so I can find them later down the road : / but I did post more before & during pics awhile back, so feel free to go see them. One of these days I will catch up with this computer age ;)

So we had been using the cabinets for awhile without doors. It was very nice when it came to putting away dishes! But we needed doors to look like a complete kitchen.

So I finally broke down & painted all the doors & drawers :)

and Hubby hung all the doors with the new hardware we picked out.

I just love our new handles!

The cabinets in front of the laundry room did not get doors because I love the look of all my home canned goods :) Maybe one of these days we will get some glass fronted doors to put there.

And some of my favorite things... My beautiful bamboo plants, Hubby's Bonsai that he got for his birthday, as well as my beautiful mortar & pestal Hubby's mom bought me, there in the back. These are the lovely things I get to look at when doing my least favorite chore...the dreaded dishes. Looking at pretty things makes it easier :) This is the picture I chose for the photo challenge this week.

I love my kitchen! I am so happy to be sharing it with you :) What is your favorite room in your home?

Pretty Kitty

Today I went to the zoo with the family who is no longer downstairs.

We had so much fun!

Giddy up giddy up

I couldn't believe it, Conner was to the shoulder of an emperor penguin & Elias is taller than an African penguin!

While we were watching the giraffes a caretaker started feeding one right next to us! It was very neat to watch. Then when he ran out of food, the giraffe locked him, then leaned over & licked Elias! He freaked out, it was very funny!

Get out of his way! He can't see over the wheel!

Big brother to the rescue!

Then we found the lions, all sleeping in a huge pile! It was like they wanted to just be petted & loved on!

High five lion!

They were so pretty! I'm glad we got to see them so close!

Before we left we took the monorail around the zoo to make sure we didn't miss anything :)

Elias decided mom's glasses looked better on him ;)

This weeks theme for our photo challenge is Fashion, so while I was looking through the pics I decided this one was perfect! I think Elias is showing excellent fashion sense in mommy's glasses :)

Are you doing anything fun this summer? Any zoo trips in your future?